New Zealand to Produce Ethanol... From Milk?

So, here's an eco-initiative that I can't quite wrap my mind around: making ethanol from milk. Fonterra, a New Zealand dairy cooperative, has started producing 30,000 liters of ethanol a day, which are being sold in Gull petrol stations around the country.

They also set a national target of 3.4% biofuel content for gas and diesel by 2012.

But--good lord, why use milk? Why not just eliminate the cows, and make methane directly from the corn (or grass) used to feed them? Cows are a major global producer of methane emissions--and New Zealand itself has been considering legislation to deal with their livestock's emissions (check out this spectacularly-titled article). So why would you try to make "green" fuel from such a non-green source?

And methane emissions aside, cows use a lot of water, land, and feed (and water and land to grow the feed...). If you want to be really energy-efficient, it seems logical that you would go down a level on the food chain.

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